Kakumeiki Valvrave – 21

It’s probably never a good idea to let yourself believe there are things Kakumeiki Valvrave won’t do.

I made mention that last week’s episode was a relatively low-key one by Kakumeiki Valvrave standards, choosing gravity and emotional reflection to a much greater degree than this series usually does. Well, anyone who’s watched enough anime knows what that usually means, especially with a show as serially demented as this one – and to no one’s surprise (certainly not mine) it turns out Valvrave was just saving up the crazy and brutal for a truly super-sized dose this week. The only thing that might be surprising is that it was able to deliver so much insanity in an episode with so little L-Elf.

Why is it that Valvrave keeps putting me in mind of poker analogies? This is a riverboat gambler of an anime, like a poker player who never bluffs. You let yourself think “he couldn’t possibly have the flush” so you call the bet – and he turns over the two spades he needs. That’s Valvrave – there’s no bluff, just bombast. And in addition to never bluffing Valvrave is always raising the stakes, going all-in – this is a show that’s been pot-committed (and probably should have been just plain committed) from the first episode and has never really looked back.

So here’s my first question – was Barnet (Sakaguchi Shuuhei) in league with the Magius all along, or was he a tool merely used by them? In either case this amounts to a masterpiece of political sleight-of-hand by Cain – in effect he and the Magius outed themselves, but managed to cast the entire thing as the doings of JIOR and themselves as the braver defenders of humanity. Willingly or not Barnet’s reporting inside The Phantom (where his producer was one of the victims of the rune-harvesting operation, which doesn’t necessarily absolve him of complicity) was the key that opened the door to Cain’s plan, and this was an instance where the secrecy Haruto and the others employed about what was really going on with the Valvraves came back to bite them, hard.

Another good question would be just how much of what was about to transpire the ARUS president knew going into this conference. We know he’s in league with the Magius, but what seems most likely is that he saw where the Fuehrer was headed and did a good job of improving – indeed, seeing this as a golden opportunity to rid himself and the Committee of a potential threat once and for all. There are still long-term problems for the Magius with this plan – even if they aren’t themselves identified as monsters I’m sure they would have preferred that the mere existence of a non-human element have been kept secret – but under the circumstances it was clearly a case of choosing the lesser of two evils (or the greater, depending on how you look at it).

Way back in episode 2 I noted that Valvrave seemed like a sort of wish-fulfilment alternate history, where instead of being allied with the Nazis Jiorapan was a plucky and fiercely independent center of freedom and ingenuity. I don’t believe that any less now than I did then, and there’s a sense of martyrdom here as JIOR is caught between the corrupt and duplicitous ARUS and the abjectly evil Dorrsia, an obvious hybrid of Nazi Germany and the communist USSR. But Valvrave has proved itself to be solidly rooted in modern Japanese cynicism too, as the more of JIOR’s backstory is revealed the more ugly and venal it appears. The citizens are the victims – they’re idealistic and brave and resourceful – but their leaders have been using them in a way that’s no less evil than what the leadership of Dorssia of indeed the Committee of 101 have been up to. And now most of the them have paid the ultimate price for the moral failures of their old leaders – and the inexperience and naiveté of their new ones.

The upshot of all this is that despair and death are everywhere. The ARUS president isn’t content with anything less than the murder of every child on Module 77, and his stormtroopers do a good job of trying to meet that goal in some of the most graphic brutality of the anime year. He and Amadeus declare a new “Dorso-ARUS alliance” to meet the “threat” of Module 77 and the monsters it’s been hiding. Worst of all, though, is the way the students turn on Haruto and the others once they see Barnet’s report and the ARUS troops start shooting. Iori – who’s just seen her father sucked dry of runes – leads the charge, and after she lures Haruto onto the shuttle the students will eventually use to escape she turns a gun on him, shooting him through the heart. The greatest blow of all, though, is that Shouko herself turns on Haruto once she sees the proof with her own eyes that he’s no longer human – especially given that he’s started to lose his memories of her as his runes start to run dry – and agrees to turn him over to ARUS in exchange for safe passage.

If there was any part of the episode that didn’t really work for me, that was it – I know what she saw was pretty damning but it seemed quite out-of-character for Shouko to turn on Haruto even so. Not to mention the fact that any idiot would have known the ARUS president wouldn’t follow through on any promises he made – it more or less felt like the dreaded stupid stick was waved around pretty liberally in order to facilitate the plot. That said, it was still an effective gut-punch – especially when Inazuka becomes the latest addition to what’s becoming an alarmingly impressive body count (though he leaves no body), sacrificing himself so that the others can escape (including possibly Coffee and Sugar, though their status isn’t 100% clear). Inazuka was always on the fringe of the story but his death was still significantly impactful, coming on the heels of being called a monster by Iori. In a sense he sacrificed himself for Haruto and Shouko specifically, though given what we know about Haruto’s condition and where it inevitably leads, as well as he and Shouko’s conspicuous absence from the flash-forwards, it seems very likely that will have been in vain.

You have to look pretty hard to find any sources of hope in Valvrave lately, but if there is any it seems to lie in the remnants of A-Drei’s old squad. L-Elf remains completely apathetic in the wake of Lieselotte’s death, but A-Drei himself is not – in addition to being Saki’s probable path to survival, he hasn’t lost interest in L-Elf for a moment. X-Eins too is wavering in the wake of H-Neun’s death and what he suspects about it – and for that matter, we haven’t seen a body either so H-Neun himself can’t totally be counted out. Something is going to re-start L-Elf’s engine sooner or later, and it’s seemed to me for quite some time that Yama Arashi (with the possible exception of the hopelessly dense and single-minded Q-Vier) are likely to end this series once again fighting for the same side, and probably side-by-side.

There were issues with this episode….well they acted realistically but still…I meant ARUS might have been in alliance with the Magius. But seriously, the people they call “Monsters” are immortal. So they should have realized that they kids they were shooting dead weren’t the so-called “Monsters”…cause they died. And yet they still wanted to purge the place of…defenseless students? Plus even if the students did know about the rune harvesting, they should have at least kept them alive to question them, but nope, that president wanted them dead (shaking my head on character stupidity). Plus the fact that they kept on calling them man-eaters when they were shown no proof that they ate people. And freaking Iori saying at the end how can they save them when they’re “monsters” devoid of feelings, like seriously, has she not been in school with these people? She knows they have feelings, all because this monster label Haruto and the others go into the “monster” stereotype. I get that everyone is high on emotions here but even L-elf….0_o….you are WAAAYYYY to depressed in this situation to an unrealistic standard, at least to us viewers, because we honestly didn’t know he had feelings for her a few episodes back and she only lasted an episode. First season we barely knew anything about them. So in a viewer sense, him being so out of it during a massacre is really….come on! Asides~from all that, I still thought this episode was pretty powerful on the emotional point and that ARUS are complete asshats.

I’m gonna assume that the ARUS president was in this all along from the beginning and not just improvising as everything was staged too perfectly.Things like Barnet being in the right place at the right time & the Dorso-ARUS alliance happening so fast felt way too convenient for both Dorssia & ARUS.

At any rate,this was truly a depressing(in an awesome way that is) episode for me.Indeed,one of the worst things was the fact that the M77 students that went to earth went against the ones who’ve been stuck in Dorssia territory.I wouldn’t expect random people to act otherwise because that’s just how the world works but I’d expect the students to show some camaraderie between themselves after what they’ve been through and some gratitude to those that fought for them on the front lines.

As for L-Elf,his sole purpose for everything he’s been doing so far was to save Lieselotte(no idea if he planned to lead JIOR with her or simply settle down but w/e).He never really gave a damn about the students unless he needed them for his plan so it’s hardly surprising that he’s like this.

Well, the Prez is obviously a Magius. That or he’s working with them as seen in the end of S1. I lol’d at how sudden two mortal enemies, Arus and Dorssia suddenly entered an alliance just like that. I was so obviously planned out. I wonder how the normal people in Valvrave are taking that. If they can’t see past the rouse….. The soldiers where probably all plants too. Note how the Prez mentioned to the soldiers that they should have had the hanger under control. That also explains why the soldiers would massacre innocent obviously not immortal students without a second thought.

Soldiers tasked a very important mission around their country’s highest ranking official would probably be hand-picked and even if a minor few had 2nd doubts,they wouldn’t dare go up against the majority.

As for masses,using the media to get them riled up was probably one of the easier parts and the ones that would call Dorssia the monsters for killing so many defenseless students wouldn’t be able to do anything anyway – at least not right away.

Yeah, it was obvious that ARUS was in cahoots with the Magius even in the last episode. The president hardly seemed surprised to see the Dorssians; they tried to take control of the hanger beforehand during the negotiations; and the surprisingly quick alliance with the Dorssians makes me think this was all scripted.

The President isn’t a Magius himself, but he is allied with them. Looking at the expressions he displays during the meeting and the fact that it’s mentioned earlier that he doesn’t really know what Council of 101 are planning, or that the Council doesn’t really bring him and Fuhrer in very often (they said the last time was a whole decade ago), I don’t think he was totally in on this. I think, it’s like Guardian Enzo says, that he eventually figured out that this was the Council making their move, and so he improvised and went along with it. It actually works out for ARUS as well, because Neo JIOR has actually been a thorn in their side since it started. This was a plus for ARUS on both sides in that they would be staying on the Magius council’s good side, as well as having their own advantages for them as well.

I also don’t thing the reporter was in on it either. He was by himself when he was wondering what happened to his producer. However, I think there might be some Magius spies either in the ARUS army, or in the student population itself. SOMEONE took all the people and put them in the ship, and it had to be someone who knew how to use rune draining equipment.

Actually, I’m not too harsh with L-elf. Despite to us it’s been two episode, it’s only been hours for him. And the process for grieving takes different amounts of time depending on the person. We also knew how much Lise meant to L-elf from the few flashbacks he has. But don’t worry, he seems to come out of his depression by next week according to the PV. :)

L-elf only joined them to assure Lieselotte a safe place. That was the payment he demanded: Haruto promised to save her in episode 8 when they formed their contract and Lieselotte is now dead. He has no reason to fight anymore, she was the only light who guided and drove him.

If you watch code geass, then I can imagine that death is something possible. I will be curious how many “Founders” are there. As “Saki” said, who could be Saki or someone in Saki’s body, since the “blessing” is popular then I can imagine the remaining students will become immortal.

Curiously, Saki Rukino, some people are thinking that it is really Akira Renbokoji and that the two people may have switched bodies, as well as how the real Saki could have died. But that is just a theory.

I am curious if Shoko will be the next Nunnally (code geass), for her to misunderstand and betray the person she loves, only to find out that he “was the same person as he always was.”

I feel, to make it more realistic, another massacre will occur. The next one will have the parents, of the kids, as they will make a large protest in the ARUS. The results would be similar to the Massacre of Tiananmen Square.

But anyway, overall, This entire episode had me like this :O. And the real monsters are the president and the human race here. They didn’t even give them a chance to explain they just started killing. In real world they would have been locked up and question not purged. This is quite something, for Humanity to just be like Sheep and label them as monsters straight up. I would’ve have liked to see sympathizers.
Anyway, this has become my favorite anime this season. I can’t wait til next week cause this might be the key to turn things around.http://randomc.net/image/Kakumeiki%20Valvrave/Kakumeiki%20Valvrave%20-%2020%20-%20Large%2010.jpg

Shoko is on her way to becoming a cold-hearted, calculating Galactic Empress in the future, especially after she realizes how she still wasn’t able to be very helpful (the show has been emphasizing this point for a while, since her father’s death).

This is where a figurehead leader like Shouko just won’t cut it.She’s too naive & inexperienced to handle it.I find it understandable,seeing how everything came crashing down on her and she was left in the dark for so long,but not really forgivable as her position would require her to act otherwise.

Also,quick shout-out to Satomi & Takahi:

While I don’t think that Satomi would’ve done a better job here but I still think he deserves some credit,as does Takahi,for keeping it together amidst all this chaos.Looks like all that time spent in Dorssia territory definitely hardened them – experience is truly the best teacher.

I think Shoko made a mistake and she’s not suited to be leader in a situation like this. She would do well on a Student Council, but not really of a country. She doesn’t have the experience of stern judgment to make the decisions needed. However, I don’t think that she deserves the hatred she’s been getting. We all knew that it wasn’t going to go well when Shoko found out the truth, and despite what many are falsely assuming, she didn’t turn on Haruto because he’s an immortal, she turned on him because he has been lying to her from the beginning and she trusted him. Broken trust is a hard thing to overcome. One of her biggest pet peeves is secrets as put by her official profile. And Haruto, who can’t seem to get a good explanation out of his mouth to save his life, only made everything worse.

In a sense, he betrayed her confidence, and with everything that had happened because of the lies, Shoko fell over the boiling point and did what she thought was right in betraying him. There is blame to go around to everybody, both Shoko and Haruto have recognized their mistakes and are ashamed of their behavior (at least Shoko is, Haruto still can’t seem to emote correctly). And since Kyuma died trying to get these two together, we’re going to have to see where this is going to lead them both.

Oh,she’s definitely getting way too much heat.This was bound to happen sooner or later.All of the students were very naive in not realizing how much they depended on L-Elf to get this far and we see the consequences of that now that he’s not there to maneuver them.

Alas,I blame the circumstances more than anything.But you know what they say…what doesn’t kill you,makes you stronger.

Honestly there was so much people acting stupid this episode it was pretty hard to actually believe they were actually doing it. Magius had an inside plant that was good enough to take that many people into the Phantom without being noticed and this guy didn’t already kill everyone else in the module while our team was on Earth. None of the Jiorians had ever seen what Jior ships looked like nor noticed that the Phantom had only been brought back when the Earth group returned meaning it didn’t even exist the first season while the “monsters” were fighting for them.

And the ARUS president is either being portrayed as an idiot American who will instantly believe something completely unbelievable after watching it on TV or he is in league with the Magius deep enough to just ally with Dorssia immediately despite which in the long run just means he doesn’t care that ARUS is going to be attacked by Dorssia whenever they want and will be even more unprepared. (Ignoring the fact that their military is looking more and more inferior since we don’t see any advances from that side)

And the worst thing for me is how all the main team is so deep in their angst nobody will say anything. The pilots just stand there while the alliance is accusing them of killing people or just wildly claiming that the recently claimed Dorssian ship is theirs. Only Haruto makes sure to tell Shouko they knew about it while making sure not to tell the fact that it’s Dorssian. And for no particular reason Haruto is shown losing a memory for the first time ever just in time for Shouko’s question.

I… had completely forgotten about that actually. Which would mean that the only reason they hadn’t already done something like this before was because they didn’t even need to. And he doesn’t need to worry about ARUS because it’s not in any danger as long as Magius is heading both countries.

I still maintain that the Jiorians were way too stupid though. I guess they got too used to L11 taking care of everything and have trouble thinking without him. And I’m still wondering if we’ll get any explanation for how those people were taken into the Phantom. (this one can happen so I’m actually hoping it will)

I share some of your feelings though. I was real annoyed when the soldiers showed no mercy killing defenceless students. The students showed no form of hostility, and if killing some of them is not enough to throw the whole immortality thing into question, such a swift decision to unite two nations that have been fighting for ages should have been suspicious enough for the world to suspect something is going on.

Things went TOO quickly. Two nations just don’t shake hands and ally themselves in the course of less than an hour and expect the world to support them.

Plus I just realized, whoever said being immortal was a bad thing? I don’t get why (asides from them planning it in the first place) ARUS is so bent out of shape of them being immortal. Its not like they’re doing anything out of the ordinary with their abilities except fighting in the war. If anything (if I was there) I would be mortified and outraged that they stuck a sword through Saki’s heart.

The denial seems to be more of a social practices thing, rather than something governmentally enforced.
Which makes it harder to change since it is a mindset thing, and their society values mindset conformity a lot.

They tend to ignore or overcompensate for the whole period of 1894-1945, as well as the old “we’re descended from the gods, everyone else is sub-human” thing they had going for a while. I can’t really judge since we behave similarly in the US about our skeletons in the closet, but the Japan-centric point of view or JapaneseWanking in many shows does grate on me occasionally.

Damn shocking episode.
It pissed me off that they didn’t give the Valvrave team the time to explain. This is not how it works in real life nowadays. I hope you guys are right about the ARUS president intending to betray them from the beginning instead of him being stupid.
Of course it didn’t help that Haruto wasn’t able to give any clear answer when questioned by Shouko. Only added to the despair and the show producers wouldn’t have it any other way.

Unfortunately there were quite a lot of QUALITY off model moments in this episode. Hopefully, those will be fixed for the bluray release. And other english fansubs could help too, considering how annoying it is to read the name of a character (Inazuka) when he’s mostly called “Senpai”. Fucking localization.

I don’t think them explaining would have done any good, at a certain point the ARUS prez knew where the Magius were going with this, and so he improvised and did his part. He was past the point of listening.

Also, the only ones who knew everything, was Haruto, L-elf, Takumi, and the other pilots. None of them except Haruto was at the meeting, and as Haruto has proven,his “explainations” actually implicated more than they exonerated.

Can anyone really blame Shouko? She was out of the loop. She was given limited information. From her point of view, the lies that those Magius made up might as well be the truth. I can understand her and truth be told, her reaction is absolutely reasonable.

No it wasn’t reasonable at all. She sold out people who was protecting her for ARUS who killed up students right in front of her face with no remorse and she fell for a fake demand from them. Honestly, I hope Akira or someone sock her ass a few times.

No it is completely reasonable. She found out Haruto has been lying to her this entire time. She thinks Haruto is behind those people dying from their runes being absorbed. She was in a DESPERATE situation and that was really her only way to save the people on board the ship. Not to mention with everything going on, she can’t think straight and fell for the easy bait. She acted like how any other human would in her position. Get off your high horse.

Shoko does share some of the blame, but no to the extent some are saying. She stood have stayed professional and thought this through instead of simply reacting the way she did, of course with Iori pushing her one. However, some of the blame can also be largely place on Haruto as well, for giving the weakest explanation ever.

I completely understand Shoko freaking after Haruto “forgot” their strongest childhood memory. It’s not unreasonable to think he’s been replaced by something else.

Yet, amongst all this uncertainty, she should remember that actions count larger than words. The valvrave pilots have all defended them (some to their deaths). ARUS has never done anything that trustworthy & just finished killing defenseless students. Also the timing & rapidity of saki, then the reporter, then the “alliance” and all that should trip warning flags that this was a setup.

A real leader like L-Elf would have seen that … but I thought Shoko would at least have relied on her friends protecting her in the past. Even if there is something wrong with Haruto, he clearly still wants to do that.

Haruto didn’t help at all with this episode either :| He said pretty much the worst possible thing at any moment. Even something cliche like “I’m sorry – trust us, we’re dying for you to escape .. we will explain everything as soon as there is time.”

I don’t really blame Shoko either but it doesn’t change the fact that she made really bad decisions. While it was definitely humane of her to make mistakes otherwise, expectations on her are high. She’s the leader after all. Lives were on her hands. There’s no excusing for her to suddenly mess it up in the most crucial situations. This isn’t a situation where you can just understand her, nod your head, and pat her on the back consolingly, telling her, “It’s okay, we all make mistakes.” This is a major mistake. It’s times like this that she is the one who plays the biggest role in.

Maya Stryker mentioned that she’s a great leader in times of peace. I agree to this, so what happened to Shoko was unfortunate. She’d be remembered as a terrible, irresponsible leader that caused the death of a Valvrave pilot martyr instead of a leader that would have avoided war at all costs and is intent on putting the happiness of her people before herself.

So Valvrave gets its own Red Wedding. Unexpected and deliciously well played by Cain. He executed Order 66 flawlessly.

I see what you tried to do though Cain, you exposed the obvious qualities that humans have when faced with a crisis, but you can never make me hate Shouko. Shouko gets a pass because she would never just turn on Haruto instantly and she’s smart enough to know that her childhood friend wasn’t eating humans when they were kids. Although I did want the last shuttle to blow up, but that was because of the chick that shot Haruto was in it.

The stupidity is off the charts in this episode that I had to just laugh at the whole thing like I was watching the finale of Blood C. Benny Hill Theme applies so much to this episode. NON STOP.

Except for maybe Kyuuma dying. That was the only good part here and A REALLY TRAGIC ONE. He had to pick up shit that Shouko and Haruto were dropping. Haruto was the prime jackass here. Shoko though, illogically stupid and I’m very disappointed in her. I expected some growth but then what the hell, this is Valvrave.

I felt the dodgy premises right from the start and enjoyed it for its absurdity and L-Elf goodness. I guess I was too caught up in the moment and thought it was trying to go areas where I never expected them to go. I guess I got caught up in the moment.

GOLD FOR SHOKO TOO. ANY GRADE WILL SUFFICE. Great job expecting any better from ARUS when they already got double crossed by Senator Figaro. Sure let’s decommission our best weapon and sell out Haruto on the time we needed them to HOLD OUT FOR 700 SECONDS. I mean they’ll let surely spare us and just let us go from the DECLARED EXTERMINATION.

Can’t wait for more hilariously “justified” teen hijinks. Reminds me of the early days of laughing mindlessly at Battle Royale 2 movie.

Damn we need 3rd seasson. I want a good (I mean well built and not rushed) finale. Not something “Just because I said so” and things without any logic behind them.
And about Shouko, I think you guys are mistaken when you say it was out of her character. I think she is weak as a person. She not a good leader, she can handle things normally, but in crisis or whe thing shappen sudden, she is very weak emotionally. Just remember what happened with her father. L-eLF was ready to shoot her. If her father wouldnt have died, I am sure she would have abandoned the whole thing to save him.

Shouko is an incapable idiot, I have never seen a leader commit so many mistakes in a single moment as she did in this episode:
-Trust people who wants your blood like it´s a witch hunt
-Betray the only person that can save your miserable exixtence
-Cause the death of one your allies
-Encourage the madness of your fellow companions

And the list just keeps up growing, she needs to die quickly or there is no future for the survivors.

This IS the final, end-all season of Valvrave, correct?
Because given this recent game-changer, I’m wondering whether the writers can properly wrap up all remaining plotlines in (presumably) 3 more eps.

They still haven’t quite explained the Valvrave tech and the backgrounds for Pino and Prue,
and now the destruction of the Blue Valvrave muddies the waters even more as to who the Golden 7 are.

How can we say for sure whether something is the end-all season? If Sunrise wants to make more they will. The sales aren’t bad – in the range where it could go either way if that were the determining factor – and Sunrise certainly isn’t allergic to sequels.

There’s way too much to the story for me to say that there can be a satisfactory ending in the next few episodes. If we live in a world where Gundam Seed can get over 100 episodes, surely this can get at least 50.

Though I get excited shivers at the mere thought of this show getting to 100 episodes; can you imagine the epicness?

I’m mostly thinking that this has to be the last season because Sunrise has another big-budget, mecha, non-Gundam project coming out next season called Buddy Complex that boasts even better animation than Valvrave judging by the trailers.

There’ too much going on in this series to end it like this. I suspect they will continue the series with a different protectionist maybe in the summer or fall season of 2014. Haruto will prob be dead by the end of this season (since his already starting to loss his memory. and the story will focus on the event after students escapes module 77.

there’ just too many hints hinting a 2nd series after the current, I mean hey… on the first time-jump saki talked about a promise (prob promising Haruto to save everyone before he died). And time-jumps hinting the war between human and the Magius. If you rewatch those time-jumps it gives you a feeling that this 2 season of the series is just a story told by saki to the prince, she even said “events of module 77″ (EP 12 of first season) during it… so… the possibility of us getting another valvrave series is high… tho… it might be a while before we hear anything about it.

I hope we get another season. There is really too much stuff left to cover. I’m not worried about the new show since it’s in the Winter season and usually Valvrave shows itself in Fall and Spring. I’m not to excited about the new show. Winter shows are not really known for their quality.

@Guardian Enzo;
How DO some Japanese anime (and manga) writers usually get away with such levels of twistedness for some of their works?
To my knowledge, depictions such as this ep would be rejected/probihited by most countries(not just USA), if not outlawed outright for media. I’m fairly ambivalent on most violent scenes in anime, but I felt very uncomfortable by these… brutal developments.

Is there some kind of legal loophole within Japanese censorship laws? Or is there a certain(but not fully accepted)liberal understanding by studios that writers should be given these writing freedoms?

What was depicted in this episode certainly wouldn’t be outlawed in the U.S., though I doubt it would ever find its way into TV animation. Most anime in Japan air after Midnight to a tiny audience – violence-wise there really aren’t much in the way of restrictions beyond avoiding doing anything that will get you bad publicity. And with manga it’s pretty much all bets are off. The only real restrictions we’ve seen implemented are in regards to sex with Ishihara’s Bill 156, which has predictably been almost totally ignored because it’s unenforceable. There are limits in terms are nudity and graphic sexual content, obviously – but the studios love that, because it helps them sell Blu-rays.

So would it be considered socially acceptable to mention in a casual conversation with a Japanese friend(non-otaku)that you watch these types of late-night anime?
Or would this render you a social pariah in their eyes?

Because I’ve heard that even mentioning you occasionally watch late-night anime is enough to destroy you socially among mainstream Japan. Since you have been in Japan for some time I was hoping you could enlighten this situation.

That’s a myth that Western anime fans seem desperate to believe is true. It depends on your social circle of course, but watching anime doesn’t make you a social pariah in the eyes of the average Japanese. There are certainly those who look down on it – mainly very conservative and older Japanese (and there are admittedly a lot of both) and I wouldn’t start talking about Oreimo in the middle of a board meeting. But to most Japanese especially 40 and under, it’s just another form of entertainment.

It should also be pointed out that it’s those same conservative and older Japanese who are the first to try and cash in whenever an anime offers the potential to cash in via tourism (like Index/Railgun with Tachikawa, Hanairo in Kanazawa and Oreimo in Chiba). Hypocrisy here, as everywhere, is a very popular sport.

What was depicted in this episode certainly wouldn’t be outlawed in the U.S., though I doubt it would ever find its way into TV animation.

I can easily see a show like this airing on Adult Swim (or the new late night Toonami). They have worse stuff on there.

It should also be pointed out that it’s those same conservative and older Japanese who are the first to try and cash in whenever an anime offers the potential to cash in via tourism (like Index/Railgun with Tachikawa, Hanairo in Kanazawa and Oreimo in Chiba).

Wonderful, Tomino would be proud of this display of grisly murder and drama. Though the idiot ball was passed quite a bit, but considering the circumstances (the students were obviously in a panic, thus causing higher brain functions to stop working) I can let it slide.

You haven’t? Shoko’s been bashed on almost every forum out there. Some are ridiculously mean, like 4chan, but some are giving it a pretty good arguments on both sides like Animesuki. I feel that Shoko made a bad decision and was the wrong kind of leader for this job, but I don’t hate her as some have expressed. She’s not as bad as Iori (who seems like the background version of Flay in this series) and she has learned from her mistake. I’m willing to give her another chance.

Kyuma died trying to get those two together, so I think that Shoko and Haruto will get together to some extent. I think this new hill they had to overcome in their relationship and they’ll probably be the better for it. They’re becoming adults now, and it’s time to leave the childhood aspect behind.

but man, Kyuuma’s a true shipper. Dude literally went down with his ship.

In all seriousness, I’m pretty bummed. I really liked him. But maybe that’s how Satomi becomes a vampire, by taking his place. Sucks that Kyuuma won’t be a part of the Golden Seven. FIRST H-NEUN AND THEN KYUUMA. WHY, SUNRISE.

as well as he and Shouko’s conspicuous absence from the flash-forwards

I wouldn’t read too much into that. Sunrise is probably leaving the big reveal of who else survives into the future for later on in the show. Those two, along with L-Elf, would be the ones they would want to reveal last.

Also, regarding the 200 year future, this is slowly heading to where I wanted it to go. Remember that in the beginning of the very first episode, the narrator stated that the current year would later come to be known as the first year of the Third Galactic Empire.

Initially, we all thought it would something Dorssia would create. Later on, we thought maybe the Magius would be the ones founding that empire.

But now that there has been a split between the students and the rest of humanity, they might end up recreating New Jior into the Empire, particularly if they slowly start getting an “us vs. them” mentality.

Once the rest of the students find out they’re all monsters as well, and that there’s no other way to fix this, they might all have to become an immortal kamitsuki (like we know Satomi does in the future), and fight an existential war against the rest of humanity, along with trying to get at the Magius.

The Empire? I think we started realizing it wasn’t Dorssia about mid-first season. The parts with the prince sealed it. The Empire came from the remnants of Neo JIOR and it’s a place for the Kamitsuki, Magius, and humans to live together as Liselotte wanted. The people they are fighting against come from the Earth with Dorssia and the ARUS. It’s why the future soldier Saki was fighting against, used German words and talked about the Golden 7 fighting against the “Royal Guard”, Dorssia is the one that has a monarchy (or they did anyway), an empire would have an “Imperial Guard”.

Yeah, I’m not really all that fond of Shoko and Iori. They couldn’t avoid the massacre since the Council 101 was planning it the moment they got Saki and ARUS was clearly in on it. I bet the massacre is going to be covered up in the end too.

The problem with Shoko betraying Haruto is that she suddenly flip-flopped to the wrong side because he couldn’t remember one memory. She didn’t ask him to remember any other time, and this moron can’t explain anything without someone holding his hand, but the fact that Haruto came to their defense when he thought soldiers boarded the ship should have been a tip-off. As well as the fact they were still fighting for them.

When asked what to do after that, by the woman who shot Haruto in the first place, she sold them out despite they were still defending them and ARUS has betrayed them once before with Moses in Season 1 while Dorssia committed so many attacks against them, several of which were war crimes. Not to mention that Haruto fuels the Valvraves, so his capture eventually would have led to them shutting down. She sold out her entire military force, her friends, because her emotions clouded her judgement as a leader when it came to Haruto.

That’s something that is hard to justify when she was doing so well before and Satomi and the others held it together enough to focus on evacuating the rest of the students. She could have at least waited until they were safe and then gotten the full details rather than rely on information from the two factions trying to kill her. She made a mistake that cost them a pilot and nearly their lives.

Now, if she didn’t betray them and Iori still shot Haruto into space I would hate her more than I already did. And trust me, that is a hard feat to top. If they were going to feed on people they were less likely to feed on the guys who could upkeep the Valvraves and they rescued in the first place.

Yeah, it was needed. They needed to get rid of the school setting somehow, as well as most of that dead weight in needless characters. The whole main cast has moved beyond being students, and it’s time the setting matured with them. I’ve been waiting for something like this since they decided to form their own country. Most of those kids had “cannon fodder” written all over them.

The “stupid stick”. I’m glad I’m not the only one that felt like there were some rather grating moments and behaviors that soured the episode for me. They could’ve tried to be a bit creative and used intelligent behavior that gets check mated. Instead of stupidity being an easy way of moving past a hang up.

Case in point, Haruto never calling bullshit and explaining the captured cruiser. Dorsia could have easily denied the argument, but the fact that Haruto just stood there like a deer in the headlights pissed me off.

Aside from the fact that there were several flash-forward sequences, in which we see an older Saki and Akira’s older brother as an asult (I forget his name) alongside a young, unnamed prince. We know that at least some of the cast will survive and go on to live peaceful lives.

I think that this slaughter will actually turn around and wind up backfiring for the Council. At the last minute, when it seems like the Council has won, they can out the footage of the kids getting slaughtered and not coming back to life. We know that Sakimori is covered with security cameras that Akira can get into and stream from, based on the events of the first episode.

This episode had too many emotions in it, I understand the student acted that why but the adults just with that video without even confirming it! It seems that the 101 council has really took a huge plan to destroy the student!

Shoko will have to know the whole truth that even his father was a part of the project, I hope sensei would help them understand what really is going on the truth has been hidden from them & now its time that they should know.

I did expect a Inuzuka sempai to die Im them being immortal but his body was gone but still hoping he’s not dead. At this point they really need L-elf to fight back & hopefully Haruto will step & fight again!

Here’s what bothers me with Shouko’s actions this episode, aside from the fact that what she did was completely out of character.

So ever since Jior became independent, Dorssia has been hunting them down like animals. The Valvrave pilots have done everything in their power to save their country, risking their lives in every single battle.

*This episode*
Arus: “Kill all students in Module 77!”
*Arus kills a bunch of students*
*Valvrave pilots still fight to save the students*
Arus: “Actually I changed my mind.. Hey, Jior, give me the only people who can actually defend your country and we’ll let the rest of you live.”

Shouko: *Hmm.. Should I put my trust in the Valvrave pilots who have been fighting non stop since day one to protect us, or should I put my trust in Arus who just slaughtered half of our students and are trying to kill the other half?*

Shouko: “Ok Arus, here, take the only two people who can stop you from killing us. Can we go now?”
Arus: “Nope. Die.”
Shouko: *cries*

Fans of Shouko: “She did nothing wrong!”

What’ll make me sad is if this show ends with Shouko going “tehe, my bad” and Haruto saying “tis k, let’s get married!”

The thing is, Shoko is both confused and shocked during this episode. Your logic overlooks this. Expecting her to remain calm and collected when a deadly crisis is in progress and Haruto doesn’t give her any good answers is quite…irrational, in and of itself. She should know better, but stress and emotional fallout are bad advisers.

You’re also funny if you think that’s how things will end, though they might reconcile anyway.

Come on,a lot of the people who defended Shouko gave solid arguments and didn’t aren’t forgiving her actions entirely.

I’m mainly a Saki fan and I won’t say that what Shouko did was nothing but I understand the situation she was put in.Truth be told,she does have A LOT to compensate for.She’ll really have to earn her forgiveness.

Seems that without L-elf the JIORians have no brains… at all. Yeah Shouko was acting like an idiot, but it was stupid to hide the situation from her in the first place. Things like the world being manipulated by a bunch of aliens, or that the entire module’s a science experiment are generally mentioned first after you return from an important mission, not left for the middle of a press conference. Eh, hopefully the next episode will be better.

Size/quantity of plot holes here are on par if not surparssing Guilty Crown.

Apart from the general lack of brain of the Module 77 residents as mentioned in previous comments, Shouko’s general ignorance of the situation & the earth expedition group’s failure in sharing their findings are just phenomenon.

Come on, they captured the phantom ship and pulled it back in port and Shouko didn’t know its existence?

Haruto & L-elf saw all that was happening in the rune sucking sub-marine on earth. Yet the whole earth expedition team (Haruto might have some reservations & LLF might be off-line but there are others) failed to mention that to their prime-minister Shouko? Really?

Haruto didn’t bother to tell everybody else on the earth team what Lise told him? Aliens are invading and Haruto is hiding the fact because he’s ashamed of himself? Really?

And finally, if Shouko had seen the video of the fight between Cain & VVV1, she would know that Cain wasn’t a normal person at all & she’d take anything Cain said with a good grain of salt. But apparently she had no clue on that. Besides, why hasn’t module 77 released that footage of Cain fighting a VVV with a bare hand yet? If they showed that footage, it would be quite clear that Cain’s no human and people would think twice regarding what Cain’s saying.

Had Module 77 done any of the above basic information sharing amongst themselves, Shouko would be act more intelligently and module 77 wouldn’t look as bad in the eyes of the on-lookers. That may not stop the massacre, but at least they won’t appear that stupid.

I suppose the only reason they did that was to repeat a CG scenario where Haruto would be betrayed by someone he loves deeply.

I’m sorry, but most of those aren’t “plot holes” even if they might qualify as flaws or at least forced situations you dislike.

Especially when it’s been established that these students, aside from L-Elf, aren’t very smart and he’s completely out of commission at the moment. They’ve been keeping all the weird Valvrave stuff secret from Shoko for a while, which has just backfired on them.

Why are you even bringing up Cain here? All he did was plan this stuff but the Dorssian leader was the one who talked in public. Shoko never talked to him nor did he say anything to her. The guy who called them on the shuttle was the ARUS president. They’re all different fellows.

You’re assuming there is recorded footage of Cain but nothing has suggested this exists.

In any case, the betrayal scenario was cut short thanks to the last minute sacrifice.

Well, to buy the “the other students aren’t very smart & L-elf is off-line” line, you’d have to accept that the average IQ of the students is around 50 or even less. Which show has a setting like that? These are genetically modified kids to be trained as pilots of the next generation fighting machines JIOR would rely on by the way.

As for Cain, the footage of him fighting VVV1 clearly indicates that he is none-human. If the Dorssian President who is accusing somebody else as being non-human is actually supported by a none-human being, doesn’t that make the Dorssian President’s words questionable?

Finally, current day fighters (or even WWII ones) has cameras recording on board activities for post operation analysis. How come VVV1, a machine 100 years in the future not having one? Not to mention the fact that a VVV pilot actually relies on cameras installed in VVV”s head to see the surrounding situations.

I’m sad to say that Inuzuka’s death was already somewhat foreshadow last week, but made me shock was why didnt haruto use harakiri blade and just instant finish off the entire squad and yes that ARUS had to been setting this up from the start. Remember what he said (wasnt the hanger secure) but Akira was there go AWALL with her valvrave. RIP Inuzuka senpai…..

Anyway, this is the 9th episode of season two. If there is another season then I would go crazy because of how I can’t bear to wait to see how such an amazing anime like this would conclude. The genocide of “Euphey” has a rival.

I thought it was a really impressive episode. It all happened quite realistically. The only thing I found silly was the ARUS President who ordered the massacre. First of all, wouldn’t he be more worried of their safety inside? If you were in his shoes and thought these monsters were your enemies, you would logically negotiate anyway to get out alive, not kill everyone of them. The Valvrave could easily wipe them off after all. The massacre scenes were great, but it didn’t feel as tragic as Inazuka. If they could have pulled that event as something tragic, it would have definitely been an extremely memorable episode.

I didn’t find Shouko’s act OOC. The fact that Haruto has forgotten their most important childhood together was a signal that he may not be the same Haruto she knew. She even stated that. She believed too that the pilots were the monsters and had been keeping secrets from her, resulting to the massacre of the people she had to protect. I would have called her really dumb if she insisted on trusting Haruto after all that.

The only stupid thing she did was to act on her emotions, which isn’t a surprise. Instead of logically figuring out that they have a better chance of survival with the Valvrave than trusting the ARUS President who freaking killed everyone, she opted to shun Haruto and the others completely.

I still think it was an impressive episode. Quite the best so far. But only in Valvrave’s standards. It’s nothing too memorable in, say, anime in general. It didn’t make me cry when it should have.

Oh my… has anyone seen Urobutchi lately?
“I’m in ur seriez killing of ur characterz!” was last message he left on Valvrave’s FB wall.
Jokes aside, well played. Not only death and carnage on massive scale including major characters, but mistrust sown by Dorssian plot causes students to turn on each other to make things worse. And the supreme irony is that a Magius possessing the body of Dorssia’s leader is denouncing Module 77 students as monsters.
Anyway, can someone shot president of ARUS dead? There are few things I despise than murder of children. Especially as the real monsters would not be affected by bullets anyway, so the carnage was pointless. Reneging on the promise of sparing the “normals” provided they turn over the pilots was also such a feat of douchebaggery that puts the cherry on top of this pie of “evil stupid”.

Shouko bitch! Haruto gaylord! Haruto lacks backbone… In this situation I’ll be screaming “I’ll fucking kill you assholes! And Shouko hide yourselve, hide where I can’t find you because I kill you!” Or something like that…
-Tell me you’re real feelings about Shouko, Haruto.
-I really want to see her, and the next time will be the last, I promise.